


Slytherin

by AlexisDawn



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Camping, F/M, Phobias, Scared Elliot Stabler, Snakes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:02:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27898777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexisDawn/pseuds/AlexisDawn
Summary: "Camping. Never did she think she would be doing this again, especially with him." One-shot.
Relationships: Olivia Benson/Elliot Stabler
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	Slytherin

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own the show or the characters.  
> Notes: This is for WriterKC and JustAnotherBookworm78 who I was chatting with and ended up getting talked into doing this idea.
> 
> Thank you WriterKC for beta reading this; go check out her stories!
> 
> Please note, any information found about snakes and how to handle them were found through google searches. I am not an expert at all about them, so if you do encounter a snake, please do not attempt to pick it up. Also, the saying “Red touching black, safe for jack. Red touching yellow, kill a fellow” is a saying, and I have no idea of the validity of it.Don’t forget to review; it speeds up the writing process!

**“Look deep into nature,  
and then  
you will understand  
everything better.”  
\- Albert Einstein**

Camping. Never did she think she would be doing this again, especially with him. Just the two of them, under the night sky, curled up by the fire huddled together for warmth.

Shaking her head as the thoughts cleared from her mind, she stood up from where she was kneeling by the tree. Grabbing the rest of the sticks she gathered; she walked over to where the stones for the campfire were and put them down next to it. Glancing around, she stepped around the items, heading for their tent to grab what was needed to make lunch.

At the tent, she bent down, opening the tent and reaching in to grab the bag. As she was taking items out of the bag, she heard footsteps coming towards where she was.

“El, do you want to start the fire?”

“Sure Liv, I just gotta move the…”

Wondering why he stopped talking, she turned around to look at him. Seeing him not moving, staring at something on the ground not far from where he was. She stood up and walked over to him, trying to find what he was staring at.

Spotting the snake in the grass, she looked at him with a worried glance.

“El, are you okay? It’s just a snake?”

“Liv, it’s a snake. Those things can kill you if you aren’t careful.”

Putting his arm around her waist, he guided her so she stood a step behind him.

She looked at him, seeing a nervous glance on his face. If she didn’t know any better she would have thought he was afraid, but that’s crazy, isn’t it?

“El, are you afraid of the snake?” Concern clearly showing on her face as she asked.

Flickering his eyes back and forth between her and the snake, he sighed and realized he would have to tell her.

“Yeah. I can stare down a perp with a weapon, but snakes kinda freak me out,” He explained to her, scared of what she was going to think. Her big bad partner scared, of something the size of his shoes. He was a Marine for heaven’s sake!

She looked at him. As he stared at the snake to make sure it wasn’t out of his sight, a small smile appeared on her face.

She walked slowly to the tent and bent down to grab a plastic bag. She then walked towards the snake at a slow pace so she didn’t scare the snake. She grabbed the snake by the tail, making sure to keep it as far away from her as possible. She put the snake in the bag and in a slow, but determined pace, she walked to the opposite side of the campsite, laying the plastic bag on the floor, and quickly backed away from it.

A few moments later she sees the snake slither out of the bag in the direction of the forest. Once it was far away from the bag, she picked the bag back up and walked back to stand between Elliot and their tent.

Staring at her, shocked at how easily she just did that he turned to look at her.

“How did you do that so effortlessly? How did you not freak out?”

“When I was younger, my mom signed me up for girl scouts in an effort to make us look more normal. Really it was her way to have some free time to drink even more, without having to deal with me for a few hours a week.”

She glanced at his face and continued when she was his understanding expression.

“We would go on different camping trips, where they taught us a lot about nature and the different animals. One of the things they taught us was an old rhyme to remind us how to tell if a snake was venomous or not. Red touching black, safe for Jack. Red touching yellow, kill a fellow. That snake was red and black, so if it did bite me, I would need medical attention, but it wouldn’t kill me.”

“Did you at least have a good time doing girls scouts?”

“Yeah, it had its moments, but overall I am glad I was able to participate in it. Now I have a question for you. How come you are afraid of snakes?” She questioned, curious as to what the reason was.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, hesitant on how to begin.

Seeing this, she put her hand on his shoulder, rubbing it in a reassuring gesture.

Glancing at her hand and then her face, he smiled before he began to speak.

“Honestly I don’t know. I think it’s something I may have blanked out from childhood. This only happened once before, years ago when the kids were younger. They had wanted to go to the Bronx Zoo to see the World of Reptiles exhibit as they had just added some new animals. I figured it sounded like fun, but what I didn’t know was that they had a huge Anaconda there. I remember just staring at it, frozen. The kids had to grab my hand and drag me out of there. Anytime after that, Kathy or Maureen would bring the others through that area.” He explained, glad he was getting this off his chest, knowing he could trust her.

“Thank you for sharing that with me,” She says, giving him a reassuring smile. 

“Liv?”

“Yeah, El?”

“Thanks for having my back.”

“Always,” She said as she gave him a quick peck on his lips, before going to work on starting the campfire.

Turning her head she said, “Besides if I didn’t, I would have to break in a new partner.”

He rolled his eyes in response to her quip, smiled, and kneeled down to help her fix lunch.


End file.
